Gideon58's Reviews

It's not really my opinion, it was my opinion when i was 8. As i said i know i wouldn't feel that way now.

Plus it's not as if Grease is that much better, that film is really bad in the same ways too just to a lesser extent.

VIVA LAS VEGAS
Elvis Presley was one of the greatest recording artists ever but really wasn't much of an actor. That didn't stop Hollywood from getting their piece of the Elvis gravy train, actually allowing the singer to star in 31 movies before his death. One of his biggest hits was a 1964 romp called Viva Las Vegas, which is more than watchable due to some slick visual trappings, a fun story, some terrific songs, and a rare instance of a leading lady for Elvis who definitely didn't fade into the woodwork next to the star.

Elvis plays Lucky Jackson, a professional race car driver who is determined to drive in the first Grand Prix in Las Vegas and has recently saved up enough money to buy a special motor for his car. Upon arrival in Vegas, he misplaces the money and has to go to work as a waiter in a hotel to earn the money back. Working as a waiter does complicate his pursuit of a pretty swimming instructor at the hotel named Rusty Martin (Ann-Margret), who has also caught the eye of another professional driver (and millionaire) named Elmo Mancini (Cesare Danova), setting up a professional rivalry and a classic romantic triangle.

Lucky's pursuit of Rusty is going pretty smoothly until Elmo tells Rusty the story of another driver who died. Rusty asks Lucky if he would give up racing and when he refuses, Rusty decides to use Mancini's attraction to her to get Lucky to change his mind.

Like all of Elvis' movies, there is never any doubt who is going to get the girl when the credits roll, but Sally Benson's screenplay sets up a believable triangle where there is actually an element of suspense as to whether or not Lucky is going to win Rusty that is actually pretty credible. This is such a 60's movie and the sensibilities that go along with that time period seem dated now, but do provide some amusement. I was very amused when after meeting Rusty and letting her get away, Lucky and Elmo go club hopping to hunt her down, assuming that any woman who lives in Vegas must be a showgirl. I really had a hard time picturing two guys in 2017 walking into a Vegas showroom and standing in front of the stage to check out each girl individually, but this movie was not made in 2017.

Admittedly, I haven't seen a lot of Elvis' films, but this is the strongest performance of the ones that I have seen. Somewhere between Loving You and this film, Elvis seems to have picked up a little comic timing and, with director George Sidney's assumed guidance, is charming and funny here. The scene where Lucky is waiting on Rusty and Elmo on their big date and trying to ruin it was very funny.

Ann-Margret was definitely the first leading lady of Elvis who not only wasn't blown off the screen, but created a chemistry with Elvis that is off the charts here. Sidney, who had just directed Ann-Margret in Bye Bye Birdie, clearly understands the actress and makes her look great here and, in a rare instance in an Elvis movie, is even given a solo musical moment, a sexy number called "Appreciation". Ann-Margret's bold performance here completely belies the fact that this was only her 4th film. Other musical highlights included a duet called "The Lady Loves Me", "If you don't think I need You", "You're the Boss" and a brassy song and dance duet for the stars called "C'mon Everybody". Not to mention the title tune, which was one of Elvis' biggest hits. The musical numbers are expertly staged by David Winters, who had just finished playing Arab in the film version of West Side Story.

Cesare Danova and that sexy accent made viable romantic competition for the Pelvis and I also enjoyed William Demarest as Rusty's dad. Elvis fanatics might add half a bag of popcorn to this rating, but this minor classic kept me smiling and tapping my toes.

I haven't seen Viva Las Vegas in a long time, but I always dig an Elvis film and he pairs well with Ann-Margret. I liked both Grease and Grease 2, but liked Grease better.

TAKEN 2
A sequel to the 2008 hit, Taken 2 is a solid action thriller that meets and surpasses most of my requirements for a good sequel (see my review of The Dark Knight Rises) and kept me on the edge of my seat for the entire running time.

This 2012 film re-introduces us to Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson), a divorced former CIA agent with an almost grown daughter, who though retired from the agency, still does freelance security work. In this film, Mills has completed an assignment in Istanbul and his ex-wife (Famke Janssen) and daughter (Maggie Grace) join him there for some R & R. Unfortunately, Bryan and his ex get kidnapped by an Albanian nationalist (Rade Sherbedgia) whose son was murdered by Bryan during his mission to save his kidnapped daughter in the first film.

I love the way this sequel unfolds, re-introducing this family that we met in the first film without re-hashing events from the first film. Luc Bresson and Robert Mark Kamen's screenplay cleverly establishes the kind of man the central character is when he learns his daughter has a new boyfriend (Luke Grimes) and he is warned by both his ex and his daughter to leave the guy alone and not conduct a background check on him, a warning that Bryan ignores. Of course, anyone who saw the first film can hardly blame him.

As a former CIA agent, we learned in the first film that Bryan has a very specific skill set that was instrumental in rescuing his daughter, but here we are refreshingly introduced to some different skills not utilized in the first film. I loved as Bryan and his ex were being abducted in a van the way he was counting the seconds they spent on a street before turning and then memorizing sounds that he was hearing during the ride. It was absolutely fascinating watching the way he used this very specific information to help his daughter figure out exactly where her parents were being taken.

I have to admit to chuckling every time Bryan would give his ex or his daughter any kind of instructions and they would initiate some kind of discussion or argument about it. It would seem that after everything that happened in the first film, these two ladies would trust Bryan's instincts about danger, shut up, and do what they're told.

Director Olivier Megaton displays a knack for mounting viable action sequences and is aided by a first rate production team. There is some dizzying camerawork and the film editing is nothing short of superb. Neesom, Janssen, and Grace create a family that we have come to care about and even though we know that somehow they are going to survive, we are still fascinated to see exactly how it's going to happen. I must also applaud the director and screenwriters, who in an attempt to make a bigger and better sequel, didn't feel the need to give us a four hour film. The running times for the first film and this one are practically identical...fabulous. And yes, there is a Taken 3.

A Mighty Wind
The Christopher Guest rep company, never known for providing conventional comedy, take the viewer on an offbeat journey in 2003's A Mighty Wind that actually turns out to be funnier than its premise implies.

The death of a folk music concert promoter from the 60's prompts his son (Bob Balaban) to organize a tribute to his father in the form of a concert, featuring three great folk acts of the 60's who happen to still be around.

The Folksman is a trio of singers who are thrilled to be part of this tribute, despite some infighting among the guys; The Main Street Singers is actually a rather large group which are actually two separate groups that decided to merge; Mitch and Mickey were a male/female duo who had a monster hit record that made a giant impact because near the end of the song, Mitch and Mickey kiss each other. Mitch is lauded as this folk music god who influenced everyone back in the day, but when he shows up in New York to rehearse the concert, he has apparently had some sort of mental breakdown and is only a shell of the man he was.

In their accustomed "mockumentary" style, director Christopher Guest and his co-screenwriter Eugene Levy have crafted an amusing and human look at a very select group of show business professionals who seem to be in complete denial about their genre's limited appeal. Only one character in the movie actual admits to hating folk music and he happens to be the other son of the dead concert promoter. I have to admit that as the premise of this film unfolded, I expected to be bored to death, but Guest and company, who have made us laugh at dog shows, community theater, and Hollywood, mine humor out of folk music as well.

The one of a kind musical score includes songs like "Old Joe's Place", "Loco Man", "Never Did No Wondrin', "Main Street Rag" and "A Kiss at the End of the Rainbow", Mitch and Mickeys famous duet, actually received an Oscar nomination for Best Song.

Guest has always had a knack for casting his rep company in tailor-made roles and it was genius to cast Michael McKean, Harry Shearer, and himself as the Folksman...the gimmick of having the three actors who were the leads in This is Spinal Tap reunite onscreen here 20 years later was just inspired and conjured up all kinds of memories for me. The offstage bickering between the trio definitely stirred up images of an older and wiser David, Nigel, and Derek. Eugene Levy and Catherine O'Hara shine as Mitch and Mickey and there are other great comic contributions along the way from Jane Lynch, Parker Posey, Fred Willard, John Michael Higgins, Jennifer Coolidge, and Ed Begley Jr. This movie is a lot more fun than it sounds. Fans of the Smothers Brothers will have a head start here.

JUNGLE FEVER
Director Spike Lee gave us a real mixed bag with 1991's Jungle Fever, a well-meaning if overly elaborate look at New Millenium racism that does tread some new territory for mainstream films, but the primary story from which everything else springs just isn't as interesting as everything surrounding it.

The primary story revolves around Flip (Wesley Snipes), an intelligent and arrogant black architect who is married with a daughter and is so convinced that he is underappreciated where he works that he quits when his demand to be made partner isn't met. Angela (Annabella Sciorra) is a sexy Italian temp working for Flip who lives with her father, her two moronic brothers, and has a newsstand proprietor (John Turturro) in love with her. One fateful night, Flip and Angela give into a mutual attraction that they fought as long as they could, and the reveal of their affair alters the lives of everyone in their individual orbits forever.

Flip and Angela's affair springboards an in-your-face look at different kinds of racism that isn't always addressed in other films on the subject. This story is not just about a black guy cheating on his light-skinned black wife with a white girl. This is about an Italian girl being nearly beaten to death by her father when he learns his daughter is a "N****r lover." This is about black women's increasing insecurity regarding too many black men getting involved with white women. This is about how one of Angela's best friends finds her sleeping with a black man "disgusting". This about the newsstand proprietor who after being quietly dumped by Angie, finds himself attracted to a black woman and how his family is not having it.

There's also a slightly over the top, but nonetheless entertaining secondary story revolving around Flip's older brother, Gator (Samuel L. Jackson). Gator is a crackhead constantly borrowing money from Flip and his mother (Ruby Dee) and has been banned from his parents home by his father (Ossie Davis).

Though the film pretends to be a story of interracial romance, there's so much going on here that this so-called romance gets lost in the cinematic shuffle. Flip and Angela's story really doesn't sustain the interest as it should. First, because Sciorra's lifeless performance makes Flip's attraction to the woman hard to buy and the chemistry between Snipes and Sciorra just wasn't there and for a story like this, if there is no real chemistry between the leads, attention begins to wander. Fortunately, Lee gives us other things to distract us from the leads, particularly Gator's story, made completely watchable thanks to the flashy performance from Samuel L. Jackson, though the scene in the giant crack house strained credibility. The saddest part of Flip and Angela's story is that it really had very little to do with the color of their skin...these were just two people who had a moment of weakness that they mistook for love and paid the price for it.

Wesley Snipes works very hard at keeping Flip likable even though the guy is kind of an ass. Lonette McKee offers a powerhouse turn as Flip's wife and I loved Turturro (and his little brother Nicholas) and the scenery chewing turn by Oscar winner Anthony Quinn was also a standout.

Lee's self-indulgence soap box approach to direction has never been more apparent...that annoying camera thing where it looks like the characters are floating when they are supposed to be walking is used to distraction in two different scenes. And I don't know what it is about Spike and music, but there are few directors more clueless about music than Lee...it started off promisingly with Stevie Wonder's awesome title tune, but the music soon turned pretentious and overpowering, diluting the power of scenes that it should have been enhancing. Despite all this, I found myself riveted to the proceedings and never looked at my watch, though Lee has definitely done better work.

SELMA
For those like me who were children when most of this was happening, or for those who hadn't been born yet and their only exposure to Martin Luther King Jr. was his "I Have a Dream" speech, the 2014 Best Picture nominee Selma is worthy of your time and attention.

Oprah Winfrey was producer and Brad Pitt served as one of the executive producers for this elaborate docudrama, mounted in exquisite detail, where Dr. King's battle for Civil Rights went after "I Have a Dream." The story begins after the iconic speech and after Dr. King's winning the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize, where he has begun a new leg of his civil rights battle...the right for blacks to vote, a right on paper, that was blocked through red tape and illegal restrictions and technicalities manifested by the south, where even though desegregation was a law on paper, was not even close to becoming a reality.

Like my review of The People Vs OJ Simpson, this review is intended to be a review of the film in terms of its entertainment value and I will be analyzing what the film documents and not my personal feelings about it. There are too many very prickly subjects touched upon by this docudrama to discuss in any kind of realistic context so I will be talking about the film for its effectiveness as entertainment.

Paul Webb's screenplay seems to take a pretty balanced look at this often ugly and turbulent period in American history without taking sides and does not paint the central character (or any other character here )in a completely flattering light. As mentioned, I was a child when all this was going on, but according to this film, the whole March on Selma was triggered by LBJ's refusal to sign a voting equal rights bill, resulting in what was intended to be a peaceful March from Selma to Montgomery, which met with violent retaliation from Alabama law enforcement (fueled by Alabama governor George Wallace). I have to admit to being shocked to learn that King didn't even participate in the first march.

Don't get it twisted though...the film also makes it crystal clear that this leg of King's fight for Civil Rights was his life blood and nothing would deter him. There is an explosive confrontation between King and LBJ where King explains that LBJ could have prevented all of this with a stroke of his pen. According to this film, LBJ supported civil rights in theory but did not consider it a priority in his administration and this is what fueled the entire battle presented in this landmark drama.

Director Ava DuVernay has mounted a compelling and emotionally manipulative fact-based drama that has no clear cut heroes or villains and spreads the blame for this disturbing battle equally, DuVernay is aided by some first rate casting, especially with David Oyelowo as Dr. King. Olyelowo doesn't resemble King and never attempts to imitation, but perfectly captures the spirit of the man. Kudos as well to Tom Wilkinson for his LBJ and Tim Roth, as a surprisingly greasy George Wallace, The film features excellent production values including exquisite cinematography, explosive editing, and a flawless music score, climaxed by John Legend's Oscar-winning "Glory". A textbook docudrama that hits all the right notes.

I adore most of Guest and Co's movies with the exception of Mascots. Would like to know your thoughts on that one. Good review, btw!

Never seen Mascots

SHALL WE DANCE (2004)
One of the more pleasant surprises I've had at the movies lately was 2004's Shall We Dance. Not to be confused with the old Astaire/Rogers musical, this film is labeled as a romantic comedy, but the film reminded more of films like Footloose and Billy Elliott as a celebration of the passion that dance can ignite in a person, aided by sparkling direction and mad star power.

Fresh off his Golden Globe winning song and dance turn in Chicago, Richard Gere plays John Clark, a married Chicago attorney and father of two, who is entranced by a young woman (Jennifer Lopez) he sees looking pensively out of a window on the second floor of a dance studio that his commuter train passes every day. After catching her at the window twice, he impulsively gets off the train the third day and signs up for dance lessons and though the woman he saw only teaches advanced students, John finds a passion for ballroom dancing that he had no idea was inside him but is also afraid to tell his wife (Susan Sarandon) about it.

The screenplay here is alternately imaginative and a little safe...we are expecting a passionate affair between John and Paulina, Lopez' character but we get something a little different. We're expecting a romantic triangle and what we get is a look at the passion of dance and how it can bring some people together and build walls between others. There is a lovely subplot involving a co-worker of John's named Linc, brilliantly played by Stanley Tucci, who loves ballroom dancing but feels the need to keep it a secret from everyone he knows, going to elaborate lengths, including outrageous disguises and toupees in order to keep his secret. Unfortunately, it is John's inability to be honest with his wife about his new passion that almost destroys his marriage. I thought it was an interesting story move when John's wife hires a detective (Richard Jenkins) to find out what her husband is up to and when she learns he's not having an affair, chooses to let John have his secret instead of asking to share in it.

Of course, there is some wonderful dancing here and Gere had already proven his ability to command a dance floor in Chicago, but it is this lovely character that Gere creates that is really the star attraction here...Gere has rarely been so utterly charming onscreen and the steamy tango he does with Lopez about halfway through the film in a dark empty dance studio is definitely the film's high point. Sarandon brings a richness to the role of John's wife that isn't in the script, Bobby Cannavale is amusing as a fellow dance student who thinks learning to dance will make him a babe magnet and Tucci steals every scene he is in. And if they don't blink, fans of "Dancing with the Stars" will catch cameos by two pros from that show, Karina Smirnoff and Tony Davoloni. It's nothing earth-shattering, but the film is richly entertaining and, if caught in the right mood, could ignite a tear duct or two.

@Gideon58, that's a very thought provoking review of Hidden Figures, well written too. I enjoyed reading it.

I didn't know it was nominated for Best Picture 2016, IMO it was good but not that good.

A SIMPLE PLAN
Greed and the power of money and how said power can trigger unspeakable modes of self preservation seem to be the motivations behind a 1998 drama called A Simple Plan, a suspenseful and sometimes moving drama that takes some really ugly turns that force the viewer's attention. This was my first re-watch in honor of the late Bill Paxton, who offers one of his strongest performances here.

Paxton plays Hank Mitchell, an accountant in a feed & grain store, who is married to Sarah (Bridget Fonda) and has a baby on the way. One snowy night Hank, his slightly dim brother Jacob (Billy Bob Thornton) and Jacob's BFF Lou (Brent Briscoe) find an airplane crashed in the woods buried underneath the snow. Hank enters the plane and encounters the dead pilot still in the cockpit and finds a large gym bag that contains four million dollars.

Jacob and Lou's first instinct is to split the money and never mention it to anyone. Hank appears to have a slightly cooler head and suggests that he hold the money until the thaw or until someone comes looking for the plane. If the snow melts and no one has come around about the plane or the money, Hank agrees to split the money between the three of them as long as they all leave town after they do so. But Hank's greed comes to light as well when he brings the money home to hold and shows it to Sarah almost immediately, whose first instinct is to turn the money in, but when it comes to light that the possibility of no one coming after the money seems imminent, even Sarah's greed kicks in, spring boarding a truly disturbing story that holds surprises at every turn.

Director Sam Raimi really scores here creating an atmospheric drama that takes on an added richness with the story being buried in snow and the eerie cinematic symbolism of black crows overlooking the story...every shot of the snow buried plane is overseen by intrusive black crows warning the viewer of the evil that men do, even though we don't need any reminders...the effect of greed has rarely been so effectively showcased as screenwriter Scott B. Smith does here, adapting his own novel for the screen. Stories about people who find large amounts of money never end pleasantly, and even though you want to slap the characters involved for even considering for a minute that they're going to get away with what they're intending, it doesn't make the story any less watchable and this particular story leaves a lot of bodies in its wake.

Paxton is first rate in a complex performance, as are Billy Bob Thornton as Jacob, a performance that earned him an Oscar nomination and Briscoe as Lou. Raimi has employed top notch production values here, with special nods to art direction and cinematography. There's some slow spots about halfway through, but the film bounces back to a powerful and uncompromising conclusion.

I don't think it deserved a Best Picture nomination either.

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST (2017)
As with most remakes, I was reticent about approaching the 2017 live action remake of the 1991 animated musical that was the first animated film to receive a Best Picture nomination, but fears were almost immediately vanquished by this elaborate and exquisitely detailed live action rendering of the classic fairy tale which fleshes out some characters and plot points to maximum effect and really brings into focus who the real villain of this piece is.

For those who didn't see the 1991 film, Belle is a dreamy-eyed romantic girl growing up in a tiny French village who is considered an oddball because she likes to read and is not in a hurry to find a husband. An arrogant French soldier named Gaston has decided that he wants Belle as his bride whether she's interested or not. Belle's father leaves the village and is taken prisoner by a beast who lives in a huge gothic mansion because Belle's father attempted to steal a rose for Belle. This rose is the key to a curse that was put on the Beast many years ago and he could never become normal again without it and the love of a woman. Belle goes to the castle to barter her father's freedom and agrees to stay at the castle in exchange for her father's freedom, setting the stage for one of the greatest love stories ever mounted.

Bill Condon, who directed the film version of Dreamgirls and won an Oscar for the screenplay of Gods and Monsters, has triumphed here, mounting a musical feast for the eyes and ears that not only delivers the story that was brought to us in charming animated form in 1991, but clears up a few points that the 1991 version didn't make as clear. In this film, we are privy to the curse that is placed on the Beast and, more importantly, why it was placed on him. It was quite the eye opener to learn that this guy was kind of a jerk even before he become the beast and his jerkiness was definitely intensified by the curse, but he was no saint at the beginning of the story and I liked the fact that it really was Belle's love that changed him. I loved the slow burn of the relationship between Belle and the Beast...I love when her face lights up when she sees his library and he gives it to her. This version of the story also makes it very clear that Gaston is the villain here and not the Beast. Granted he starts off as sort of a comic villain, but for the final act of the film, the character's humor has faded and we are left with one of cinema's most venomous antagonists.

Most of the songs written by Alan Menken and Howard Ashman wrote for the 1991 film are back, including "Belle", "Be Our Guest", "Something There", "Gaston", and the Oscar winning title tune. There are also a couple of new songs written especially for this film including "The Mob Song" and "Evermore".

Condon has employed superb production values in bringing this classic tale vividly to life, the movie features absolutely superb art direction/set direction, cinematography, editing, costumes, makeup, and visual effects. The technical artistry in bringing the Beast's household staff to life, like Lumiere and Cogsworth is nothing short of incredible.

Condon's casting instincts were also pretty much on the money here...Emma Watson made an enchanting Belle and Dan Stevens brought a sophisticated elegance to the Beast that was joy to watch. Luke Evans beautifully underplays as Gaston, a character who could have been just a one-dimensional, mustache-twirling villain, but Evans brought a twinkle to Gaston's eye and a sleaze to his agenda that made him the perfect guy for this story and he was perfectly complemented by Joshua Gad as LeFou, Gaston's companion who eventually sees Gaston's true colors. Bouquets as well to Ewan MacGregor as the voice of Lumiere, Ian McKellen as the voice of Cogsworth, and Emma Stone as the voice of Mrs. Potts. And let's not forget Oscar winner Kevin Kline as Belle's father. Fans of the 1991 film should find entertainment value here. I did.

CINDERFELLA
Jerry Lewis decided to give the classic fairy tale a gender switch and came up with a 1960 oddity called Cinderfella which provides sporadic laughs.

Jerry plays Fella, whose late father left everything to his second wife (Judith Anderson) on the condition that she always take care of Fella. Since the will was not specific as to how Fella was to be cared for, Stepmommy kept him on the estate as a slave to her and her two moronic sons (Henry Silva, Robert Hutton), and Fella just seems to go along with it.

Then a princess from a foreign country (Anna Maria Alberghetti) is rumored to be on her way to America for some husband shopping and Stepmommy of course wants to see one of her boys romance the woman, but Fella,who has run into the princess prior to the ball being thrown in her honor and made less than a strong impression, gets a second chance with the help of his Fairy Godfather (Ed Wynn).

Director and screenwriter Frank Tashlin works hard at bringing something new and original to this well-worn story and it looks like he left a lot of it up to his star...the scene in the kitchen where Fella is pretending to be the Count Basie orchestra and his classic entrance at the ball down a very long staircase appear to be Jerry's brainchild and Tashlin just let the star do what he does best. Even though this movie was made four years after Lewis' final work with Dean Martin, Lewis still seems to be nursing a need to let the world know here that he doesn't need Martin anymore, evidenced in a couple of dreadful musical numbers that Lewis is given here that add nothing to the story. The second one in the basement of Fella's house is particularly embarrassing.

As usual with Jerry Lewis' work in the 1960's Jerry's the whole show, but Judith Anderson, Ed Wynn and Henry Silva do manager to sneak a few laughs past the star. Jerry fans will find a lot to love here, but I think he's done better work.

"The Mob Song" is actually in the original 1991 film. There was that song "Human Again" that they added to the Broadway show that was originally written for the '91 film. I loved it when they added it to the re-release of the animated Beauty and the Beast. I was looking so forward to seeing it done on the movie screen in this live action version. I will say that the fact that they omitted that from the songs that could've been used in the film was a disappointment for me. They could've turned it into such a big number. I would've loved that.

__________________
I became insane, with long intervals of horrible sanity - Edgar Allan Poe

PECKER
John Waters, the creative force behind underground classics like Pink Flamingos, Polyester, Hairspray, and Cry Baby tried something a little more mainstream in 1998 with Pecker a film that is a little too safe in dealing with some subject matter that is now dated enough to make interest wane in 2017.

Most of Waters' work takes place in Baltimore in the 1950's but Waters chose to set this story in contemporary Baltimore, where we are introduced to Pecker (Edward Furlong) a young man obsessed with photography and the concept of it as art. Everyone in town knows Pecker and of his obsession...when people see him coming, they automatically start posing. His family loves him (despite the fact that they named him Pecker), even if they are slightly embarrassed about his passion for picture taking. Even his girlfriend (Christina Ricci) is finding it tiring until Pecker's pictures get the attention of a New York art gallery director (Lili Taylor) who wants to give Pecker his own show and faster than you can say "shutterbug" , Pecker becomes an art world celebrity, a position that does have its perks and its consequences.

There's no doubt that Waters' work has always been an acquired taste and that this movie has a lot going for it, particularly a really likable title character who we are behind from jump; however, I think my interest in what happened in the course of the story did begin to wane because the story seems dated...photography? Unless inside a modeling studio, when was the last time you saw anyone on the planet with a camera around their neck? Cameras are on cell phones now, making the whole basic premise of this film rather dated.

Waters' screenplay is pretty accurate in portraying the ups and downs of celebrity and those obsessed with same and we understand when the lives of the people that Pecker really cares about become damaged because of his success, but it's such safe, middle of the road stuff for a filmmaker like Waters. Waters has a reputation for outrageous stories and bizarre characters that require complete suspension of disbelief. Very few members of Waters' rep company are on hand here and it might be this cast's misunderstanding of Waters that made for some real sluggish going around the halfway point, before rebounding for a terrific conclusion.

Furlong is a charmer in the title role and I also enjoyed Mary Kay Place and Mark Joy as his parents, Martha Plimpton as his sister, and Brandon Sexton III as his BFF Matt, and I did enjoy a game Pecker and Matt play at the beginning of the film called "Shopping for Others", but the saggy center of the film and Waters' rather pedestrian subject matter kept this film from being what it should have been.

REAR WINDOW
Alfred Hitchcock, the undisputed king of cinematic suspense, earned one of his five Best Director nominations for 1954's Rear Window, an atmospheric and stylized nail biter that unfolds slowly without a lot of red herrings but delivers a climax that definitely had me on the edge of my chair and that's only because the master was behind the camera. Say what you will, but Hitchcock was the only director where no matter what film of his you're experiencing, the standout element of the film was his direction.

This superb piece of entertainment stars James Stewart as L.B. "Jeff" Jefferies, an acclaimed magazine photographer who has been wheelchair bound in his apartment for six weeks due to a broken leg and is going stir crazy. Jeff's boredom has him spending hours looking out the window and observing his various neighbors and creating his own stories about the lives of the varied neighbors, including a lonely spinster who actually pretends to have gentleman callers, a songwriter whose career seems to be having many ups and downs, and a pretty dancer who likes to stretch in front of her open window. But those neighbors' stories take a back seat for Jeff when it starts to look like another neighbor (Raymond Burr) may have murdered his wife.

Jeff shares his theory with his wealthy, self-absorbed girlfriend Lisa (Grace Kelly) and his nurse/housekeeper, Stella (Thelma Ritter), who are both initially skeptical about what Jeff thinks he has seen but are eventually on board with Jeff and want to help him nab this guy. Unfortunately, Jeff's buddy Doyle (Wendell Corey), a police detective, is a little more difficult to convince and his initial look into Jeff's suspicions are unable to be substantiated and have Jeff and the viewer scratching our collective heads as to the validity of Jeff's theory.

Hitchcock really knocked it out of the park here, creating a deliciously entertaining suspense film that unfolds so deliberately that we're not really sure what's going on here, even though it's obvious that it's going to involve one of his neighbors. I love the way John Michael Hayes' screenplay firmly establishes the kind of level-headed, but adventurous guy that Jeff is, while subtly foreshadowing what is going to happen through Kelly and Ritter's characters...five minutes after her initial entrance into the story, Ritter's Stella makes it clear that Jeff needs to stop looking out the window because he's going to see something he's not expecting. Jeff's relationship with Lisa has a couple of different layers...we see that Jeff is feeling a little smothered by Lisa and he actually attempts to use this mystery to discreetly end his relationship with Lisa, but it only has the exact opposite effect.

Hitchcock must also be applauded for the attention he put into establishing the individual lives of Jeff's neighbors...I was amused by one window revealing a couple who has just been married and after the traditional carrying over the thresh hold, they are the only neighbors observed actually closing their windows and blinds. I also love the way Hitchcock legitimizes all these neighbors having their windows and shades open by giving us an almost immediate close up of a thermometer revealing a temperature in the 90's making us accept the fact every neighbor has their windows open and one couple is even sleeping on their balcony because it's too hot in the apartment.

Hitchcock and Stewart reunite after The Man Who Knew Too Much and prove to be a formidable team and Kelly, draped in gorgeous Edith Head costumes, is smoldering and sexy. Ritter, as always, provides just enough comic relief to serve the story and I've never enjoyed Wendell Corey onscreen more as Doyle. Psycho is definitely Hitch's masterpiece, but this one sure gives Psycho a run for its money. BTW, the voice of Jeff's editor on the phone in the opening scene is future Oscar winner Gig Young.
Re-thought for television in 1998 for Christopher Reeve, who was already paralyzed.

PUBLIC ENEMIES
Despite some flashy directorial pyrotechnics, a couple of charismatic leading performances, a rock solid supporting cast, and some first rate production values, the 2009 docudrama Public Enemies isn't quite the film it should be due primarily to an overly padded screenplay that meanders too leisurely to a foregone conclusion.

This film is a look at what appears to be the final years in the career of mobster John Dillinger and the FBI's dogged pursuit of the man, led by J. Edgar Hoover and Melvin G. Purvis. Dillinger is not new cinematic territory, but it is the first one I've seen and my knowledge of the facts is pop culture level, so this film can be only judged on how the characters were presented in my eyes and the film as entertainment value.

Director and co-screenwriter Michael Mann, if nothing else, drives home the inspiration of the phrase most associated with Dillinger..."Public Enemy Number One." Dillinger is painted here as a criminal who demanded fear and respect from both sides of the law. He commanded unquestionable loyalty from those who were part of his inner circle and was undisputed in the art of self preservation. This Dillinger is also a man who was acutely aware of his mortality and exactly what his lifestyle has earned him in terms of eventual consequences. I can't think of a lot of movie characters I've seen who have made an impression that makes their own want to distance themselves. According to this film, John Dillinger was a mobster that even the mob wanted nothing to do with.

One thing that this film does is infuse a definite likability factor into the character and that is definitely the combined efforts of the actor and director. Observing a lot of what Dillinger does here, it's a little unsettling that I find myself siding with the character whether I'm supposed to and a lot of that is in the magic of casting.

Johnny Depp lights up the screen in the title role and I have to wonder if this film would have been nearly as interesting if another actor had been playing this part, but Depp's star power gives this film more meat than it deserves and Christian Bale works hard at keeping Purvis from being a cliche. Mann has assembled an impressive supporting cast including Billy Crudup, Stephen Lang, Jason Clarke, James Russo, Giovanni Ribisi, and Channing Tatum. Must also mention Oscar winner Marian Cotillard who takes the typical movie gun moll role to another level. The film also features incredible editing, sound, and costumes. Fans of the director might add half a bag of popcorn to the rating, but being a fan of Depp kept me from taking half a bag off. A mixed bag to be sure, but it definitely goes on too long.

DIRTY DANCING (2017)
ABC apparently poured mountains of money into their "re-imagining" of Dirty Dancing the 1987 classic that won an Oscar for Best Song ("I've Had the Time of My Life") and made official movie stars out of the late Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey, but it was all for naught. I'm pretty sure the term "re-imagining" was used to legitimize this bastardization of the original film that I am scrambling to think of something positive to say regarding the three hours of my life this movie stole from me.

For the uninitiated, this is the story of Frances "Baby" Houseman, a high school senior in the 1960's, who spends the summer at a resort in the Catskills with her parents and older sister and has an ill-fated romance with the resort's sexy dance instructor, Johnny Castle. This film re-invented the art of movie dance, made guys dancing cool again and was the surprise box office smash of 1987.

This film was in the top 20 of my list of films that never should remade, but now that's it done, all I can do is bring to light the myriad problems that came with remounting a film that should have been allowed to languish in our cinematic memory chests as the original treasure it was instead of attempting to bring something "new" to it.

There's so much wrong here that I'm not sure where to start, but let's begin with Jessica Sharzer's screenplay with its obvious feminist leanings. The story attempts to empower the women in the story even though exactly the opposite is true of most of the women in the original film. We are told immediately of Baby's fascination with Betty Friedan's "The Feminine Mystique" and are shocked when later on in the film we see Lisa trying to read it. Yes, Lisa, Baby's older sister, the girl who didn't have a brain in her head in the original film. Lisa is actually given a brain and a social conscience in this film, evidenced in her on the surface romance with a black guitar player who teachers her how to play the ukelele (yes, you read that correctly). Marjorie Houseman, Baby's mother, turns out to be struggling to keep her marriage together, when it is revealed that she and Dr. Houseman haven't had sex in a year and Vivian Pressman, the rich divorcee whose lust for Johnny actually drives her to blackmail.

Apologies for the comparisons to the original film, but with any kind of remake, avoiding comparisons is pretty much impossible. For me, what made the original film the special experience it was was the smoking chemistry between Swayze and Grey, and it's just not here. Abigail Breslin is a talented actress who understand the character of Baby and works very hard at being part of a sexy onscreen team but generates absolutely NO chemistry with virtual unknown Colt Prattes whose wooden performance and less than stellar dancing skills, along with Breslin appearing to be approximately 25 pounds overweight, just made it hard to invest in these two as a couple.

The film tries to make up for the lack of chemistry between the stars by beefing up the roles of minor characters that we just don't care about. The whole subplot of the Houseman's dying marriage was just deadening despite sincere work from Debra Messing as Marjorie Houseman, but Bruce Greenwood sucked all the likability out of the role of Baby's father, brilliantly played by the late Jerry Orbach in the original. The role of Vivian was also beefed up, given great appeal thanks to Katey Sagal's terrific performance in the role. Messing and Sagal were even both awarded their own musical sequences in the film, which I suspect were added to get the actresses to agree to appear. Also enjoyed Nicole Scherzinger as Penny, Johnny's dance partner, played by Cynthia Rhodes in the original film. She and Sagal somehow manage to retain their dignity during this mess.

The main problem with this film is that Sharzer and director Wayne Blair have attempted to take a drama with dance sequences and turn it into a movie musical and try to legitimize it all with a hard to believe climax that left me scratching my head. They attempt to turn the piece into a musical by utilizing all the music from the original and having the cast sing the songs, which would have been OK, except all the musical sequences come off sounding canned and phony. On the very small positive side, the film is beautiful to look at with some stunning cinematography, but the choreography is unimaginative and I've seen better dancing on Dancing with the Stars. Other than the performances of Katey Sagal and Nicole Scherzinger, this movie is a hot mess, even worse than FOX's remake of Grease, which I really didn't think could be outdone in terms of bad, but ABC has accomplished just that.